Graeme Campbell (politician)

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Graeme Campbell

| honorific-suffix =

| image =

| constituency_MP = Kalgoorlie

| parliament = Australian

| majority =

| predecessor = Mick Cotter

| successor = Barry Haase

| term_start = 18 October 1980

| term_end = 3 October 1998

| office2 = Leader of the Australia First Party

| predecessor2 = Position established

| successor2 =

| term_start2 = June 1996

| term_end2 = June 2001

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1939|8|13}}

| birth_place = Oxfordshire, England

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = English Australian

| spouse = Michele (née Lelievre)

| party = Labor (1980–95)
Independent (1995–96, 2004–present)
Australia First Reform (1996)
Australia First (1996–2001)
One Nation (2001–2004)

| relations =

| children =

| residence =

| alma_mater =

| occupation = Various

| profession =

| religion =

| signature =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

Graeme Campbell (born 13 August 1939) is an Australian far-right politician. Campbell represented the seat of Kalgoorlie in the Australian House of Representatives from 1980 to 1998 as a member of the Australian Labor Party.{{cite web|url=http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/TranslateWIPILink.aspx?Folder=BIOGS&Criteria=NAME_ID:CF4%3B |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121128013936/http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/TranslateWIPILink.aspx?Folder=BIOGS&Criteria=NAME_ID:CF4; |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-11-28 |title=Biography for Campbell, Graeme |publisher=Parliament of Australia |date=August 2008 |access-date=24 January 2010}} Campbell later founded the nationalist Australia First Party, before joining Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Biography

Campbell was born in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, and came to Australia as a child. He was educated at Urrbrae Agricultural High School in South Australia. In 1972, Campbell met his future wife, French-Australian Michele Lelievre, at a sheep station in the Nullarbor Plain.{{Cite web|date=4 March 2018|title=Finding love in the regions: 'A different set of rules apply'|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/finding-love-in-the-regions-its-different/9494940}} Campbell worked in a range of occupations before entering federal parliament in October 1980 as the Labor member for Kalgoorlie.

Considered a maverick, he was an ardent supporter of the mining industry,{{cite news|newspaper=The Age|date=2 October 1986|title=Dust Makes the Wealth of Kalgoorlie and its Golden Mile|author=Catherine Menagh|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19861002&id=ADspAAAAIBAJ&pg=1332,1148860}} and crossed the floor on gold tax in 1988,{{cite web|url=http://www.aph.gov.au/HANSARD/reps/dailys/dr091299.pdf |title=House of Representatives Official Hansard |date=9 December 1999 |page=37 |access-date=24 March 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026141708/http://Brendan.O%7CWA%7CConnor.MP@aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr091299.pdf |archive-date=26 October 2009 |df=dmy}} and was also a vocal critic of the Mabo decision{{cite web|url=http://www.alor.org/Volume29/Vol29No47.htm |date=3 December 1993 |title=The Graeme Campbell Tragedy |work=On Target |access-date=24 January 2010 |author=Eric D. Butler |publisher=Australian League of Rights |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916075856/http://www.alor.org/Volume29/Vol29No47.htm |archive-date=16 September 2009 |df=dmy}} and sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa, and a proponent of uranium mining. In October 1993, and again in May 1995, he delivered a speech at the national seminar of the Australian League of Rights, a far-right group for which he was believed to hold sympathies,{{cite web|url=http://www.alor.org/Volume31/Vol31No30.htm |date=11 August 1995 |title=The Campbell Affair and the League of Rights |work=On Target |access-date=24 January 2010 |author=David Thompson |publisher=Australian League of Rights |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916115845/http://www.alor.org/Volume31/Vol31No30.htm |archive-date=16 September 2009 |df=dmy}} and in by-elections in Mackellar and Warringah (safe Liberal seats on the Northern Beaches of Sydney) in 1994, he urged electors to vote for Australians Against Further Immigration (AAFI).{{cite book |last=Jupp |first=James |title=From white Australia to Woomera: the story of Australian immigration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9XR6eKT54AC |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2002 |page=136 |isbn=978-0-521-53140-5}}

After numerous run-ins with the Labor leadership and considerable media attention to his exploits, he was finally expelled from the party on 30 November 1995{{cite web|url=http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RP/1998-99/99rp10.htm |title=The Decline in Support for Australian Major Parties and the Prospect of Minority Government |author=Scott Bennett |date=16 February 1999 |access-date=24 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713000218/http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/1998-99/99rp10.htm |archive-date=13 July 2010 |df=dmy}} after addressing an AAFI meeting where he criticised Labor's immigration policies. He continued to sit in parliament as an independent, and was reelected as an independent in the 1996 election,{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/guide/kalg.htm|publisher=ABC News|work=Australia Votes 2007|title=Kalgoorlie|date=21 December 2007|last=Green|first=Antony|author-link=Antony Green|access-date=24 January 2010}} when he only received 35% of the primary vote, but defeated the Labor candidate, former Deputy Premier of Western Australia Ian Taylor, on Liberal preferences.

In June 1996, Campbell founded the Australia First Party,{{cite web|url=http://www.australiafirstparty.com.au/cms/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612213249/http://www.australiafirstparty.com.au/cms/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 June 2007 |title=The Eight Core Policies of the Australia First Party |year=2005 |access-date=24 January 2010}} but was officially reckoned as an independent. He was defeated for reelection at the 1998 federal election after being eliminated on the seventh count.[http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/1998/1998repswa.txt 1998 Western Australia election results] Campbell blamed his loss on Australia First being eclipsed by One Nation. In 2009, he claimed that, if not for the presence of a One Nation candidate, he would have picked up an additional 8.5% of the vote, which would have been enough to keep him in the race.Destiny Magazine, Issue No. 6

He remained Australia First's leader until June 2001, when he left the party to stand (unsuccessfully) as a One Nation Senate candidate in Western Australia. In 2004, he attempted unsuccessfully to regain his old federal seat as an independent. He stood for the Senate in Western Australia at the 2007 federal election as an independent, but only achieved 0.13% of the vote.{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/results/senate/wa.htm|publisher=ABC News|title=Senate Results Western Australia|work=Federal Election 2007|year=2007|author=?Antony Green|access-date=24 January 2010}}

References

Bibliography

Graeme Campbell and Mark Uhlmann. Australia Betrayed: How Australian democracy has been undermined and our naive trust betrayed, Foundation Press, Perth, 1995. {{ISBN|1-875778-02-0}}

{{succession box | title={{nowrap|Member for Kalgoorlie}} | before=Mick Cotter | after=Barry Haase | years=1980–1998}}

Category:1939 births

Category:Living people

Category:Pauline Hanson's One Nation politicians

Category:Independent members of the Parliament of Australia

Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia

Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives

Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kalgoorlie

Category:English emigrants to Australia

Category:People from Abingdon-on-Thames

Category:Australia First Party members of the Parliament of Australia

Category:Australian conspiracy theorists